Latest Update: Saturday 06 June 2009

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General

Church Packs have just been mailed out to all the participating churches and groups. These contain a covering letter, posters, invitation cards, a Festival DVD, and other items. If your church or group has not received the pack, please contact the Festival Office (by e-mail or Tel. 01463 729090) or, if you are in the Inverness area, pop round to the office in working hours and pick up a pack. The office is at Culduthel Christian Centre which is beside the Inverness Royal Academy off the southern distributor road.

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Counsellor Training in Inverness

Check with your church to see if it is offering a “Festival Friend” training course on DVD.

You are also welcome to attend a united training session in Inverness:

Volunteers needed

Many have already signed up but more volunteers are needed! Several positions are still available and we need you.

Visit the Volunteer Website today and choose a job and shift time that works for you. A three-hour shift will allow you to volunteer and still enjoy the festival and hang out with the friends you have invited to come.

We need greeters who welcome festival goers and give them a programme, security volunteers, stewards to distribute and receive response cards, and festival grounds people to keep the site neat and clean.

What about gathering three or four friends and serving together? Or, organize your church youth group to serve together for a shift. There is a job for every preference!

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Tain

An outreach dinner evening the evangelist Reid Saunders and organised in conjunction with Tain Womens Aglow. Both men and women are invited to this evening; and it is the desire of all involved that this will an event to which many who do not know Christ will attend. Please pray.

Wick and Thurso outreach dinners

Buckie - Tea in Buckie afternoon outreach

Thursday, 11 June, 2009

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Inverness

All Souls Orchestra - 2 nights: Wednesday/Thursday 17 - 18 June

The full orchestra is now coming (previously it was a smaller ensemble). Local vocalists will also be participating. Although a limited number of seats are available now. Further '2-for-1' concessionary tickets are now on sale with the strong encouragement to make this event one that is principally for non-Christians.

Delirious?, is without a doubt the best known Christian band in the UK and they are coming to Highland Festival! After 15 years together, this brilliant team is calling it quits.

Randy Burtis comments:'Imagine Bught park filled with people of all ages.Champion skateboarders and BMX stunt riders push the limits of daring. Children clamber into bouncy castles, have their faces painted, and watch as the Veggie Tales perform.

From the far end of the park comes the sound of a great band as concert after concert begins. Some of the music will rock you, some will soothe you, but it will all lift your spirit,

Then Luis Palau steps to the microphone and shares a message of hope and transformation with a crowd of thousands.'

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Women's Lunch at Beaufort Castle (Beauly)

This is planned for Thursday, 18 June and to be held in a marquee in the grounds of Beaufort Castle (with kind permission from Anne Gloag). Churches are being invited to host a table.

Lady Susan Sainsbury will be the speaker.

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Businessmen/Civic Leaders lunch at Drumossie Hotel

Planned for Tuesday, 16 June. Luis Palau will be the speaker

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Moray Firth Radio will be advertising the Festival from Monday, 1 June with an announcement going out within every 2-hour slot

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Bus advertisments

Advertising will start to appear on all the Inverness buses from the last week in May

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Counsellor training

Tiffany Stewart of the Luis Palau Association is co-ordinating the counsellor training programme.

Counsellors are being trained to handle three types of responses: A new commitment, a re-commitment and an enquiry for further thought.

Tuesday 5 May 2009

Highland towns are busy preparing for the “Festival Tour” which will bring a one day event to eight different locations—complete with skaters, bikers, bands, kids activities, and most importantly, a message of hope from Luis Palau or one of his partner evangelists.

Bands lined up

Delirious, Britain’s best known Christian band, has agreed to lead the line-up of festival musical guests at the festival in Bught Park. Delirious will be disbanding in the near future so it's great that they have been keen to part of the Festival before they break up as a music group.

They will be joined by LZ7, Dweeb, Hillsong London, Doug Walker, The Listening, Superhero, and Laddhill.

All Souls Orchestra

Highland Festival will host two nights of great classical music at Eden Court. All Souls Ensemble and other musicians will perform, while Luis Palau will share the Good News.

Tickets are available to the general public through Eden Court box office for £10.00 each. A special block of tickets have been reserved for churches.

2 for 1 "Invite a friend"

The invitation to the local Christian community is to purchase special 2 for 1 “Invite a Friend” tickets as well. These will be available to churches and will cost £10.00 for a pair of tickets (or £5.00 each). The strategy behind the 2 for 1 is to make it easier for Christians to use this unique opportunity to bring a friend who needs to hear an uplifting message of hope and salvation.

These special tickets are available through the Eden Court box office to those who use a special promotional code. A quantity of “Invite a Friend” vouchers with that code will be included in your promotional packet. Please give these coupons to your congregation with the clear instruction that purchasing “Invite a Friend” 2 for 1 tickets means that they are committed to bringing a friend who needs to hear the Good News!

The special block of church tickets will be released to the general public for sale on 10 June. You can still purchase the discounted tickets after that point as long as supplies last. Again, anyone can purchase the regularly priced £10.00 tickets from Eden Court at any time.

Bless the Highlands - Food Drive

With the current economic situation Highland Food banks are now struggling to keep up with demand. Highland Festival is partnering with Blythswood Care to gather a large amount of non- perishable food items for local distribution. But Highland Festival needs your help!

Between now and the festival every participating church is being invited to collect non-perishable food items for this effort. Along with church packs of promotional materials is a list of the foods needed and a poster that can be put on a collection bin at your church. The intention being that not only will this food fill a need for a family or individual in crisis, but will also be a great way to bless the local community!

Randy Burtis (Festival Director) writes:

As the festival draws closer you will see festival newspaper ads, signs on city buses, and radio advertisements. But the most powerful publicity will come from you and your congregation!

Right now, 100,000 festival invitations are being printed for church members to hand out to their friends, family, and co-workers. Churches that have signed up to participate in the Highland Festival will receive these tickets. In addition, they will receive a promotional packet which will include:

Several churches are planning to do “neighbourhood blitzes” and deliver an invitation to every home in their parish.

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Friday 30th April 2009

Randy Burtis writes:

Hi Everyone,

Youth Rally in CYC

Just wanted to let you know that the first announcement of which bands will be performing at the festival in June will be made at the youth rally on Saturday. I hope you are not only coming, but are planning to invite some friends. Jose Zayas will have a relevant message to share, Riptide is packing up their gear for a night of super music, and Tommie Mackay will have the lights on and the doors open at the CYC. HAVE YOU INVITED SOME FRIENDS?